This invention relates to an animal food of improved palatability and a meat containing palatability enhancing material applied to the surfaces of the food product.
Dried pet food products are widely marketed for pets such as cats and dogs. Generally, dried pet food products sold commercially have a relatively low moisture content of less than about 12% by weight, and provide excellent nutrition for animals because of a lower moisture content which permits a higher degree of nutritional balancing of ingredients. Extrusion cooking processes for the production of dried pet foods have been a significant factor in the growth of this market because of the better cooking achieved with this type of process as well as better mixing of ingredients and the desirable texture achieved with a puffed or expanded product. Dry products produced by this type of process are well accepted by the animal but are significantly lower in palatability than canned or high moisture products which typically consist entirely of meat with a moisture content of about 50% by weight.
Another means of overcoming the lower palatability of dry pet foods is to increase the moisture content to a point where the pet will readily accept it but to a point which is below the level of moisture at which canning or sterilization of the product is required for maximum bacteriological stability. This has been achieved by the development of intermediate moisture pet foods where the moisture content is controlled to between about 15 and 45% by weight. The water activity of the product can be controlled or various preservatives can be included to provide bacteriological and mycotic stability. While the intermediate moisture products are relatively palatable, they are still not on a par with high moisture products and usually suffer from the deficiency that the preservative system which is needed for this type of product lowers palatability below that for the same product without the preservative. Furthermore, in these and dry products, ingredient formulation becomes exceptionally critical and cannot be altered by using ingredients of equal nutritive value unless one can be sure the alternative ingredient does not depress or diminish palatability. The formulation of these type of products therefore becomes complex and each ingredient used must be evaluated for its relative effect on palatability of the product. This, of course, reduces the flexibility in formulation that a pet food manufacturer would like to have. Therefore, even though dry and intermediate moisture products have been extremely successful and convenient to use by the pet owner, a need has continually existed for additives or other ingredients which can be applied to the food product in order to increase the palatability of the product without reducing or altering the nutritive properties.
A variety of materials and additives have been proposed for use as palatability enhancers for pet foods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,429 describes the use of various flavor enhancing acids to boost the palatability of cat foods. U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,031 describes a synergistically effective flavor enhancing coating with a critically defined mixture of phosphoric and citric acid to improve the palatability of dry and intermediate moisture pet foods for cats. More recently, various types of meat containing coatings have been employed to improve the palatability of dry or intermediate moisture pet foods. U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,340 describes a pet food product comprising a core material composed of various proteinaceous and farinaceous ingredients having a cover layer of a substantial thickness which comprises animal tissue. The animal tissue is applied as a paste to provide a continuous coating on the product and the entire product is then dried.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,954 further describes a dried meat containing material which can be applied to dog foods to improve the palatability thereof. This dried material is formed by taking raw meat, grinding and mixing with water followed by cooking of the meat to make a roast meat type flavor. This roasted meat material is then liquified, homogenized, and spray dried and is thereby suitable for addition to dog food products to improve the palatability thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,485 describes a dried cereal based pet food composed of farinaceous and proteinaceous materials which is encapsulated within a glazed coating composed of liver and farinaceous materials. The coating comprises a level of greater than 50% by weight of liver and is applied to the core material in a moist state followed by baking of the coated core to form a continuous glaze of the coating on the pet food product.
In spite of the development of the above coatings which contain meat as an essential ingredient, a need still exists for a coating containing meat which is highly palatable to pets. A need also exists for a meat containing palatability enhancer which is formed in such a manner that it can be easily applied or dusted on most conventional or intermediate moisture pet foods and added at a relatively low level such that it does not alter the appearance of the pet food product yet provides a significant boost in palatability.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an animal food product of improved palatability.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a meat containing coating for improving the palatability of pet foods that can be easily prepared and applied to the pet food product.
These and other objects are achieved pursuant to the present invention.